Memory and Monuments Across the Contemporary Middle East: Empires, Nations, and Environments

Wednesday, February 26, 2025 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Virtual Event This event is a professional development webinar for K-14 teachers and is supported by funding from the Department of Education - Title VI. How can engagements with the past both consolidate and challenge the power of state authorities? This presentation answers that question through a survey of monuments and memory across the contemporary Middle East. Drawing on case studies from places including Turkey, Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia, this talk describes the many forms that memory can take. It argues that although some of these struggles over memory are specific to the region of the Middle East, many of the lessons they teach have much wider resonance in the context of global struggles over history, justice, and citizenship. RSVP HERE

Speakers

Dr. Timur Hammond Timur Hammond is an associate professor in the Geography and the Environment Department at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He received a Ph.D. and M.A. in geography from the University of California, Los Angeles (2016, 2010), and a B.A. in English/creative writing from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2005). Prior to joining the faculty at Syracuse University, he worked in the Department of Geography at the University of Vermont. Trained as an urban and cultural geographer, his research draws on archival and ethnographic methods to explore the intersection between urban experience and cultural identity, with a particular focus on 20th century Turkey. He has published widely on a variety of topics, including his 2023 monograph Placing Islam: Geographies of Connection in 20th Century Istanbul, and articles on translation, the politics of memory, and the geographies of religion.